DOMINION ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1924, Page 1

DOMINION ITEMS.

ny TELEGRAPH— PRESS ASSN'., COPYRIGHT,

ABABUNJ SCHEME. AUCKLAND, June l!l Report on tenders for contracts in connection with the Arupuni hydroelectric esheme will be placed before the Hon J. Coates on .Monday. The tenders would require careful consideration, said the Minister to-day, and no announcement as to acceptance would therefore he made for several dnvs.

CONSTABLE’S DEATH. CHRISTCIiI-RCH. June 20. Constable Edwin Jardin Porieous, who had been stationed at Fendalton for some years, died in the Christchurch Hospital on Wednesday night. Il‘* had been in ili-lnalth for some time and suffered lrom acute bleeding at the nose. An operation was performed on Wednesday morning and was apparently satisfactory, but at about 7 o’clock lie collapsed and died from heart failure. Constable Poreou- had been a member of tho police force since 1809. JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT. NAPIER. June 10. The ease was concluded in the Supreme Court to-night in which Florence Louise Sprole claimed £2OOO from the Acetone Illuminating and Welding Company for the death of her husband through an explosion at the port on November 1, hist year. The jury found ihai there was no negligence on the part of the defendant company.

•Judgment was niiiercd accordingly for the defendants with costs. PRIVATE HOTEL DESTROYED. GISBORNE. Juno 10 Early this evening lire prneticaljy destroyed the Arcadia Private Hotel, a lwn-sforey wooden building of fiftylive rooms, li was owned bv T. G. Lawless and occupied by \Y. O'Reilly. No -Vuriiitmv was saved, and most of the hoarders lost their private effects. lii'Uraiices on the furniture amount to j.!ituO. The amoiim on the building ii not ascertainable;.

THE WAJRAU SEAT. BLENHEIM, June 10. In a public announcement Mr R. M’Oalliim, ex-member for Wairan, states that it- is his intention to offer himself as a candidate in the interests of Liberalism at the general election, “whether held this year or next.” MATERNITY HOME CLOSED. INVERCARGILL, June 10. St. Helens Hospital, a Government maternity homo, hits been closed on account of official notification of n case of puerperal sepsis.

[ DAMAGES AWARDED. FOR. GRASS-LAND FIRE.; CHRISTCHURCH. Juno 20 After a hearing extending over seven days, the case in which Robert .Kjeir -McCandless. farmer, of Parnassus, claimed LIOI.T Ills, and .Mister Malcolm MaoFarlnne £IOOO, from Norman Rutherford, of Meudip Hills, for damage alleged to have been done by a grass fire which spread from the plaintifPs property, was concluded in the Supremo (nun to-ilnv. Tin* jury found for the plaintiffs by it threeJburth'; majority, for lesser amounts thru those claimed, .fustics Adams was on the. bench, and there was a common jury of twelve. MaoFarlnne was awarded £ooo damages, and McCandless £">2o. An application by counsel for defendant to move for a non-suit and a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the weiigbt- of evidence, was granted. STARVED TO DEATH.

WOMAN WITH £ I.•-’•*> CHRISTCHURCH. June I>o. When Sergeant McKenzie, of Sydenham. visited No tlfi. Montreal St., yesterday. where a storekeeper hail found the body of a 711 years’ old widow. Airs Klixa belli llunsley. ho found a filthy and untidy house, ami the only food he could discover wu» a dirty crust of bread and some butler, lie also lound almost; CIO in cash, and it hank I took showing .a credit of Cl-HA. At the inipteM. held to-day before Mr \A idtlowson, 5.A.1.. the Coroner returned a verdict. that the woman had been found dead, the cause of death being heart failure, following tin exhaustion, accelerated by starvation.